Follow Me
by KevlarMasquerade
Summary: Robin and Starfire. They're meant to be together. They've got this whole one-true-love thing going on. That's what everyone thinks, anyway. That's what the two of them thought. But Robin's callousness, however momentary, sparks a need in Starfire to "experience Earth". And she doesn't know when- or if- she's gonna come back.
1. Flight

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. **

**Also, look, guys! Look! Titled chapters! (If you have read anything else by me, specifically the Calm After The Storm, you will know that I hate titles. So I'm very proud of myself for titled chapters. Just saying. Okay. Go read the fic now. I'll shut up.)**

**Chapter One: Flight**

Starfire stalked through the Tower. She was looking for Robin. The rest of the Titans wanted to watch a movie, and they'd left it up to her to drag him out of the investigation room. She didn't mind. She usually liked it. She stopped in front of the room and punched in the keycode. The doors hissed open obediently.

The room was a little cold, both in temperature and in spirit. The walls and floor were gray, and the lights in the room hung from overhead, illuminating the room with only severe slices of dingy yellow light. There were three tables in the room, presumably so that if more than one investigation was going on at once, one wouldn't disturb the other. They each had four metal stools situated around them.

Robin was perched on a stool at the middle table, his back to her. The white light from his laptop was by far the brightest illumination in the room. He should have heard her come in, but he was so absorbed in what he was doing that he didn't notice her.

She smiled to herself and wrapped her arms around him from behind. He tensed at first, but then he relaxed. "Starfire?" he asked, leaning his head back against her shoulder.

"Indeed," she confirmed, her breath tickling his ear.

He took her hand and pulled her around to sit on his lap. "What's the occasion?" he asked.

"I was simply missing you," she said playfully. She knew he didn't usually like it when she said things like that, but as long as the other Titans weren't around, it was fair game.

"Yeah, well, you know I'd get distracted too easily if you stayed in here with me." He looked over her shoulder at the computer screen.

She sat quietly in his lap for a moment before tracing her finger along the yellow clasps on his vest. "We were wondering if you wanted to do the viewing of a movie."

Robin sighed. "Star, I'm in the middle of-"

"Please?" she pouted and blinked a few times for effect.

He lowered one eyebrow. He glanced from the computer screen to his girlfriend. "If I leave now, I'm gonna have to come back later and finish this."

She leaned forward so that her mouth was by his ear. She rubbed her hands over his shoulders. "Perhaps later I may accompany you and we could-"

He caught her wrists in his hands hastily. "Star, come on, seriously."

"I was not doing jokes," she protested with a frown. She pulled her wrists out of his grasp. "What is it that you are searching for?"

"That white body-changing creature we fought. And any information on Terra I can find." And Slade. He didn't say it, but she knew it was true.

This irked her. Not that he was returning to how creepily obsessive he had been about Slade in the past- well, that bothered her but she could only expect that from him- but that he wasn't telling her exactly what he was doing. "That is all you are researching?" she demanded, her voice edgy.

Robin glanced at an unopened tab on his browser before looking at her again. "Yes," he answered defensively.

Starfire sighed. "What have you found of Terra?"

"I know a lot about her past now. Since Geo-Force came here looking for her and told us that she was actually the Princess of Markovia, I've been researching it. I've found out about other villains and heroes who were the result of Markovian experiments, and I learned about the specificities of why Terra was never able to control her powers. But that doesn't help much with where she is now or how that happened. I wish I thought to put a video camera by her statue."

Starfire was half-listening as he continued to ramble, but she was still annoyed. Perhaps, as his girlfriend, she should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really wasn't looking for Slade, but she knew him much better than that. She stood up. She didn't feel like being very close to him anymore.

"What the matter?" he asked furrowing his brow.

She should just go back. Tell their friends that he wouldn't be joining them for the movie… "Are you or are you not also doing the research in hopes of finding Slade?"

Robin blew air out of his cheeks. She was annoying him. She didn't really care- at least it was mutual. "I am. So what?"

"Why did you not tell me this?" Starfire asked softly, trying not to sound like she was scolding him. That would just make him unresponsive, she knew from experience.

"I don't know, I guess I just forgot to mention it," he answered rigidly.

She softened her expression. "So are you or are you not going to be joining us for the viewing of the movie?" She gave him her patented pleasing look- head lowered, blinky eyes, slightly furrowed eyebrows, mouth in a small frown-

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I guess not."

"Robin, please. You must give your eyes some rest," she advised worriedly.

"I don't think switching from a computer screen to TV screen is considered rest," he replied.

"Then we do not need to watch the movie. You and I could-"

"Not in the mood."

She felt her eyes widen. That hurt. She stepped back from him a little.

His glanced at her before turning his attention back to the screen in front of him. "Starfire, I'm sorry, but I don't have time to worry about hurting your feelings. I'm working three different cases, here. Can't you understand?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. The effect was lost as he had his back to her. "I am sorry that the welfare of my feelings require so much effort from you," she deadpanned.

He twisted on the stool to look at her. "Don't. Don't do that," he said in a warning tone.

"Do what?" she demanded.

"That thing you do where you try to make everyone think the same way as you," he deadpanned.

"I do know what you are talking about!" she cried indignantly.

"Yes, you do. In your 'emotions guide us' type of way. It's not like that for everyone. Some people have to use logic first. Whether we want to or not."

"And being nice to me is not logical?" she rebuffed moodily.

"That's not what I'm saying at all!"

"That is how you are behaving."

Robin sighed. He finally climbed out of his stool. "Do you really think I want to do this all the time? Do you think I wouldn't be happier goofing off playing video games and watching movies all day long? I have to lock myself in here for hours and hours because I'm the only who can do it. I'm the only one who can handle it."

"So the rest of us are incapable," she concluded.

"I'm not saying that."

"So what you are saying is that we are less fit than you? That because we enjoy doing other things we are not as good a Titan as you?"

Robin shook his head. "Look, just because you choose to act all naïve and lovey all the time instead of helping me in here-"

"Excuse me?" she interrupted sharply.

Robin paused, like he was replaying what had just come out of his mouth. "I mean…"

"You think that I choose to be naïve? Would you like to be dropped on a foreign planet after escaping from the ruthless war-crazy overlords of your star system after serving them for five years in order to secure your planet's safety? Would you like to be stuck on a blue rock in space filled with six billion inhabitants and know that not one of them could possibly be familiar to you at all? Would you like to learn all the intricacies of a strange planet, that eats strange food and speaks a strange language with strange words for strange concepts, and then see how naïve _you_ appear?" She was shouting by the time she finished her frenzied speech, and the truth of her own words caused tears to prick painfully at her eyes.

Robin's face slackened. "Um…"

"I may be naïve, Robin, but I am not so naïve that I do not know when someone has no caring feelings for someone else." She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for a response. She leaned forward like he was saying something she couldn't hear.

"I didn't mean that. But you know how I get when I do this stuff." He gripped the back of the stool he was standing next to for support.

"Correct. I do know how you get. And I was trying to help you to relax so that you would not get like this," she reminded him.

He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "I know that. But I can't just abandon the work. It has to get done…"

"Must it get done right at this moment? Can you not spare a moment even for me? Must you resort to the yelling and mean words so quickly?" she asked softly.

"Starfire… I really didn't mean any of that," Robin told her softly. He moved toward her, but she backed away from him.

She was still fighting tears, trying to hold herself together so that he would understand. So that she could say what needed to be said. "It does not matter if you meant those words, Robin. You still said them."

He stepped toward her again and she backed up again. He took on a pleading tone. "But I was angry."

She furrowed her brow and gaped at him. "I know that. Why should that diminish the meaning or the effect that your words have on me?"

"Because…" he stammered. "Because… because… I wasn't thinking."

She was so confused by his logic. "I do not follow your thinking. Is this Earth custom? Are you thinking very clearly when you are telling me that you care for me after engaging in lip contact?"

"I guess not, but-"

"So do you not mean that either?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"No, I do, but-"

"So how am I supposed to know if you mean what you say? Am I supposed to wait and see if you take the words back?"

"You're taking this way out of context," he told her.

"Because I am naïve?" she demanded dryly.

"No! Star… Jesus…" he took a step toward her a third time, and just like all the other times, she backed up. She was pressed against the door now, and she reached for the keypad to punch in the code and exit the room.

Before she could even react, he closed the distance between them and took her wrist that was reaching for the keypad. He pressed it firmly against the door. She looked at him, feeling so confused and a little scared and she couldn't help but react to how close they were. She didn't struggle against him.

He touched her cheek with his right hand and she leaned into his touch. He brushed his lips against hers softly before kissing her harder. She wasn't resisting him, but she wasn't really responding, either. He tugged her wrist up until she put it obediently around his neck. He put his hands on her hips and she let her other hand float up to grab his arm. When he broke for air, he rested his forehead against hers. "I don't want to hurt you," he whispered.

She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn't stop the tears that were pooling behind her lids. She pressed herself against the door, shrinking away from him. "You are confusing me," she muttered, almost like she was talking to herself.

Robin stepped back. "Starfire…"

She reached for the keypad.

"Wait, Star-"

She turned away from him completely and punched in the code. The doors slid open and she almost fell through them. She looked up at Robin as the doors slid closed. He looked upset, and it made her want to go back in and tell him that it was okay, but some of the things he said made her need to think. She blinked back tears that were threatening to brim over her lower lids.

She made her way back to the ops room, as she needed to pass through there to get back to her room, and announced through a tight throat that Robin was not coming to watch the movie, and neither was she.

The three Titans on the couch turned to her worriedly. "Star? Beast Boy called as she blew past them.

She didn't answer him and she rushed on to her room. Once she was inside, she put in the locking command so that nobody would be able to get in, even with the code to open her door. Cyborg had the override code in case of an emergency, but she trusted that he wouldn't use it just to try to talk to her when he realized why she was upset.

Silkie was lying on the foot of her bed and he made worried warbling noises. She curled into a ball under the covers and he burrowed his way under to sit a vigil next to her.

* * *

"I don't know, dude, I think she'll be pretty ticked about it," Beast Boy warned as Robin typed furiously at the main computer in the ops room.

"Maybe you should just leave her alone," Cyborg advised, watching Robin worriedly.

"I've been leaving her alone for a week," Robin pointed out as he continued to clack at the keyboard.

"I told you… You gotta wait until she stops playing Taylor Swift songs around the clock," the changeling reminded his leader.

Robin scowled but didn't turn away from the computer monitor. "This isn't a joke, Beast Boy," he scolded.

The verdant teen sighed in annoyance. "I know that! I'm not joking! When a girl listens to nothing but Taylor Swift after a breakup…? It's bad news!"

Robin swiveled his chair toward Beast Boy. "We did _not _break up."

The other two male members of the team exchanged glances. "Um. Robin?" Cyborg asked slowly, like he was talking to a child. "You haven't spoken to her in a week, remember?"

"Yeah, but neither have you," the Teen Wonder pointed out as he swiveled back to the computer monitor.

Cyborg shrugged at Beast Boy, who took over. "Yeah, but dude, it's like… different. When your girlfriend refuses to speak to you for a week… It kinda means she doesn't wanna be your girlfriend anymore."

"Then I'll get her to change her mind," Robin countered simply, giving his friends a confused look, as though he couldn't figure out why they hadn't thought of that themselves.

"Don't you think that messing with the alarm system is going a little far? What happens if we get an actual call while you're doing this?" Cyborg asked gently.

"Guys, it's okay. I analyzed it, and statistically, this is the best time to do this. Based on the number of calls a day we've been getting and the amount of-"

"Okay, okay, Jimmy Neutron, we don't need to hear your whole study. But… like… what are you gonna say to her?" Beast Boy asked.

Robin sighed. "I'm not sure. But I'll think of something. I'll tell her I made a mistake."

Cyborg looked worried, but as he was in no position to offer any words of advice, he stayed quiet.

"What did you do, anyway?" Beast Boy demanded. "Was it, like, a sex thing?"

"A sex thi-?! No!" Robin spluttered. He pushed himself away from the keyboard and whirled toward Beast Boy angrily.

"No? So the sex was good?"

Robin shot out of his chair and spin-kicked Beast Boy so that the couch flipped over. The changeling landed in a heap after slamming against the counter in the kitchenette. Beast Boy groaned.

"Why don't you just ask Raven to put in a good word for you or something?" Cyborg asked, trying to ignore Beast Boy.

Robin shook his head and dragged his hand through his hair. "She won't. She won't even tell me what Star's saying to her when she goes in there. And _you_ won't give me the override code for her door," Robin reminded his friend accusingly.

Cyborg raised his hands with his palms facing out. "Hey, I am _not_ getting in the middle of this. If you wanna do something stupid like set off the alarm to get her to come out of her room, you go right ahead."

"Are you sure? Because I'm almost done. Once I put in the command… that's it." Robin looked at Cyborg almost hopefully.

The cybernetic teen purposefully avoided his leader's gaze. "Do what you gotta, dude. I'm out."

Robin sighed and looked up at the screen. He pressed the enter button on the keyboard and immediately red light flooded the room and the alarm klaxon filled the air.

"Good luck," Cyborg muttered doubtfully as Robin rushed out of the room.

Starfire had been going out on missions with the team, but she'd wait until they were all gone before she'd come out of her room and meet them wherever the trouble was. She'd help out, careful never to interact with Robin except to listen to any orders he'd give the team- he'd gotten a good punch in the face because of that, actually- and then she'd fly back to the tower, sometimes accompanied by Raven, and once Beast Boy went with them, before Robin or Cyborg could even offer to take her back. It was infuriating.

Robin pressed himself against the wall next to her door. He stayed like that for six minutes- a pretty negligible time, actually- before her door slid open. He grabbed blindly for her and his fingers connected with her metal gauntlet. She gave a cry of surprise and she tried to wrench her arm back, but he held fast. He was jerked into her room and this only seemed to make her panic even more.

"Starfire," he growled. She wasn't using her powers, so must not be _that_ desperate. And it wasn't like he was going to do anything to her. He just wanted her to stop thrashing around so he could say something.

He wrestled her against the wall after about half a minute, and once her back was pressed against the steel, she stilled, looking up at him with wide eyes.

He'd missed her. Her eyes were such a bright green that it was hard to conjure up an image of it without underestimating just how bright they were. And her hair was such a deep red, and her skin such an odd orangey-gold that she could only just pass it off as a Mediterranean complexion- it was like seeing in color after being doomed to black and white for a week.

She looked shocked and definitely not pleased but she had more of a pouty expression than an angry one. She was waiting for him to say something, but all the words he knew in multiple languages all fled from his mind.

He let his head hang, feeling strangely defeated. "I missed you," he murmured, unable to look at her.

To his surprise, she dug her hands into his hair and tilted his head back a little roughly and kissed him fiercely. He made a surprised noise against her mouth but that didn't seem to slow her down at all.

He squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't come here for this. He needed to talk to her. He pulled away from her a little, panting. "Star, wait, I-"

She bit his lip. Hard. He let his mouth hang open and his brow knitted together. She rested her head back against the wall and raised her eyebrows expectantly. She was giving him a choice. He could talk to her or he could do what it seemed like she wanted him to. He should talk to her, he knew, but he couldn't even remember his first name, never mind recall what exactly he wanted to say. Cyborg was right. He should have planned this out better.

But he didn't. Even if he did, he never would have expected this. Even if he'd been told before tripping the alarm- which, he just realized, was still going off- he wouldn't have expected this. He couldn't handle the way she was looking at him- the way her lids seemed heavy so she had to look at him through her lashes and her mouth was slightly parted and the way her eyebrows were still raised a little. He didn't know how her eyes could hold so much heat without any trace of a starbolt in them.

He pulled her toward him and caught her mouth with his. She let him feel in control for only a few moments before she pressed against him eagerly. She ran her fingers over his chest, clutching at and undoing the yellow clasps on his vest. Without letting any space come between their lips, she freed his cape from where it attached to his uniform at his shoulders and at the nape of his neck. She pushed him back toward her bed and pushed him onto it before climbing on top of him.

"Star," he stammered, panicking slightly. This was going so fast, and she was acting so strangely. She ignored him and trailed kisses across his collar bone. He groaned and rested his head against her mattress arching his torso closer to her. He struggled to think of something to say, but it was getting increasingly harder to concentrate.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a purple backpack and a purple duffle bag. A wave of panic broke through him and he pushed her back, but she resisted. He flipped himself over so that she was under him. She made an odd noise that closely resembled a purr and she tried to rub herself against him.

Still bewildered by her behavior, he firmly planted a gloved hand on her hip to keep her still. Before she could distract him anymore, he demanded, "Why are there packed bags in the corner over there?"

Her eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise. He tried not to think of the way she kissed him before and looked at her eyes. They lost that weird heated look and she looked kind of scared now.

She sat up and he shifted so that he wasn't leaning over her anymore. She looked from the bags in the corner back to Robin.

Anger surged through him. He walked over to her closet and pulled the door open. The shelves and hangers were bare. He walked over to her dresser and started pulling drawers open. All of them were empty. His temper was growing with each empty drawer and he was yanking them open more and more roughly as he continued.

"What are you doing?" Starfire called timidly from her bed.

He spun around to face her. "What am _I_ doing? What the hell are _you _doing?"

She looked down at her hands and he kneeled on her mattress in front of her. Trying to be gentle, he tilted her chin so that she had to look at him. "What's going on?" he asked, forcing calmness into his voice.

Her eyes shone as tears filled them. _Great._ She put her hand on his wrist and gently pushed his hand away. "I have been doing much thinking."

"You're not leaving," he snapped.

She squeezed her eyes closed like she was in pain. "It has already been decided."

"But you can't go."

"I must," she said softly. Her voice was coming out thin and unsure, but somehow he didn't think it was because she was unsure.

"Why? Because you and I had a fight? Don't you think that's an overreaction?" he demanded.

"No. Not because of our bickering. Because I have spent the entire time I have been on this planet doing the fighting of crime. I have not learned of its ways. I am thinking that perhaps I made a mistake in choosing to stay here instead of going back to Tamaran…" she looked away from him almost like she was ashamed.

He put his hands on her shoulders. "Aren't you happy? Don't you feel like you belong?" His voice came out pained and he swallowed in an attempt to regain control over himself.

She looked back up at him and a tear trickled down her cheek. "I felt like I belonged with you," she said so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

Electricity crackled in his veins and he felt his face heat up. "You do, Starfire. You belong with me. You can't leave."

"But that is why I must," she explained. She blinked and more tears rolled down her cheeks. "I have not experienced Earth. I have experienced you. I fear that perhaps that was a bad decision."

Robin reached up and wiped her cheek with the heel of his hand. "It wasn't. I'm here for you." He pulled her into his arms so that her head rested against his shoulder and her back was cradled against his arm. He kissed her forehead.

She let him hold her like that for a moment before untangling herself from his arms. "You say that now, Robin, but how am I to know when you mean what you say?" She scrambled to the edge of the bed and stood, teetering a little on her feet like she was dazed. She bent and looped her arm through one of the straps of her backpack. "I cannot stay to wait for you to take it back."

He stood up. "I won't. I mean it, Star. Don't go."

She blinked and more tears cascaded down her face. When some people cry, their noses and cheeks turn red and their eyes swell and their mouth contorts into chapped and swollen grimaces. But she looked almost regal, biting a tiny bit at her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. The rest of her face was calm, her eyes soft and shining and her brow furrowed a little. He took her chin in his hand again and pulled her into a soft kiss. "Please stay," he murmured against her lips.

She pulled back and scooped up the strap of her duffle bag. She just shook her head. Her eyes closed gently as she stepped toward her window.

"Starfire, you have to stay. I don't know what'll happen to me if you go," he told her, his voice cracking under the weight of the truth.

She opened her eyes and sniffled. "And I do not know what will happen to me if I stay." She tore herself away from him and turned toward her window. She pushed it open and flew out of it.

Robin rushed to the window and called out to her. He fumbled in his belt for his grappling hook gun and took aim.

A transparent black mass in the shape of a Raven that radiated cold stretched out in front of him. Raven stepped out of the figure, not saying anything.

"Raven… I have to go after her!" he shouted wildly. The shouting kept his voice from breaking.

"I can't let you," she said softly.

"You knew about this?" he demanded. "You knew she was going to leave?"

Raven glanced down and to the side.

"How could you just let her go? How can you help her? _She's leaving!_" he shouted desperately, unable to keep more emotion than he intended from escaping into the last word.

"It was a decision she made," Raven told him mournfully.

"A decision you supported. You think she's right. You think I'm… bad for her…" He backed away from Raven until the back of his knees hit Starfire's bed. He sank down on it and cradled his head in his hands.

Raven sat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "I don't think that. But, Robin, she's an alien. She does things differently than we do. You didn't feel it… Every single thing you said had such a great impact on her emotions. It was almost unhealthy."

"Where's she going?" he asked, looking out the window in hopes of catching her receding form. She was already gone, though.

"She didn't tell me. I don't think she knows."

Robin sighed. "I really screwed up."

"It's not your fault. " You were just a catalyst," Raven soothed.

"That's not very comforting. But thanks for trying." Robin pushed himself off the bed and strode the halls determinedly.

"Where are you going?" Raven asked, jumping up after him.

"I'm going to track her communicator."

"Um, Robin…" she called. She stopped and narrowed her eyes at him, annoyed that he was ignoring her. "Robin, I wouldn't…" She let her voice trail off. He wasn't listening anyway.

Robin walked into the ops room, cape billowing out behind him. The couch had been righted and Beast Boy was lying on it clutching his stomach where Robin had kicked him.

"Um, how'd it-" Cyborg began.

"Why didn't you guys turn the damn alarm off?" Robin snapped as he rolled the chair at the computer back to sit in it.

"Not well, then," Cyborg concluded.

Robin clacked on the keyboard and, after turning off the alarm, he pulled up a three dimensional globe with each Titan's location triangulated on it. He spun the 3-D image around carefully. While there were a few sporadic dots around the globe- Hotspot in Africa, Red Star in Russia, Argent in New Zealand- most of the dots were concentrated in the US. To the East were Bee, Speedy, Aqualad, and the twins, and to the west were the five of them and Kid Flash and Jinx.

As Robin suspected, there was a yellow dot on the screen moving east. He picked up his communicator and sighed. He pressed the talk button. "Starfire. Please come back. We need you."

No response. He glanced uneasily back at Cyborg and Beast Boy before leaning closer to the screen, like he was talking to that little dot. "_I_ need you."

There was the sound of rushing wind for a few seconds and then the familiar sound of a starbolt, followed by static. The yellow dot blipped out. Robin swore and threw his communicator on the ground, barely stopping himself from crushing it under his boot.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were staring at him with wide eyes. "Star's gone?" Beast Boy asked softly.

"She'll come back," Robin answered as he stood and picked up his communicator.

"When?" Cyborg asked, sounding alarmed.

Robin looked from changeling to half-robot a few times before turning quickly and exiting the room, brushing past Raven in the doorway without saying a word.

"Robin?" Beast Boy called after him. Then he looked back at the computer. "You can track her, right, Cy?"

Cyborg clambered into the chair Robin had just vacated. "I don't know, B, but I'm gonna try."

**Hello, everyone! I hope you don't mind long chapters. There are page breaks, so you could always stop at those if you need a break. Counting this as an update, there're gonna be three updates in three weeks. BLAM, BLAM, BLAM. This was originally intended to be a little drabble that I wrote because I was having writer's block with Love's Labors, and then it got kinda long and I thought that I could post it as a oneshot, and then it got even longer and I thought, "Okay, NBD, I'll two-shot it. One chapter and an epilogue type thing." WRONG. It kept growing. So, I present to you, the Finished Product. The Finished Product is 18,000 words long. (This chapter was 5,000 words, to give you a bearing.) **

**I'll tell you guys what, though. I kind of really want to hear feedback from you about this, because it's different in a lot of ways than I've written and I want to get used to writing like this. So if I get five reviews, I'll post the chapter before next week. (Yeah, I'm totally ripping of GhirardelliFan's technique. Go read their story, it's good.) Five reviews, and BLAM! Update. I promise. Even if it's today. I could have the whole thing up tonight, if you guys choose. All the chapters are already are already uploaded onto my manager, and this was supposed to be a oneshot, anyway. The five reviews and then another chapter thing go for the next chapter to. See you, guys! Thanks for reading!**

**Here is a teaser for the next chapter:**

"I came all the way out here to come get you. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" he asked, his voice pleading instead of accusing.

Starfire shut her eyes. He was getting to her. "I came all the way out here to leave you. Doesn't _that_ mean anything to _you_?"

He stared down at her. "Why are you trying so hard to hurt me?" As he said it, a weird, cold pain seemed to spread out from his chest until it enveloped his body. Breathing hurt. Blinking hurt. Moving hurt. Everything hurt but looking at her.

She shook her head, blinking rapidly. "Robin…"

The way she said his name made a trickle of warmth pierce through the coldness. He needed that. He needed more of it now and he would need it tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.


	2. Reunion

**Thanks for the reviews, guys! Here's the next chapter for ya. Also, WONDER GIRL! Not Cassie Sadsmark. The other, more awesome one (no offense, Cassie).**

Robin was holed up in the investigation room. Again. His teammates were getting increasingly worried about him. He'd spent about a week moping around, interspersed with bursts of anger and occasionally kicking Cyborg and Beast Boy off the Gamestation so that he could play a gory video game and kill _everything_.

Then he threw himself into research. He'd stopped looking into Terra after Beast Boy finally admitted that he went to her high school and talked to her and she seemed safe and happy. He'd been looking into that white shape shifting creature, but only halfheartedly. He started out searching for Slade, but more recently his efforts shifted from Slade to finding exactly where Starfire was.

She must have been trying really hard to keep a low profile, and Robin was really disappointed in his ability to track down an orange girl whose eyes glowed green whenever she got too angry. She'd been going east, but that didn't necessarily mean that she kept going that way. She could be anywhere, from Washington to Florida. He started out scouring for any hint of her in Florida or Georgia or South or North Carolina, thinking she would want a similar climate to Jump but wanted to be as far away as possible. He couldn't find anything. He'd south, from Arizona to Alabama, but he couldn't find any trace of her there, either.

Just as he was beginning to think that she left the country, he got the biggest tip off he could have wanted. Well, Raven found it, and she had no idea that showing him would make him even more determined to find her. Starfire was in a magazine ad. He never, in a million years, would have thought of that.

It was an advertisement for jeans, which he only remembered because she wasn't wearing much of anything else.

He asked Raven for the rest of the magazine, but she seemed to realize her mistake and she wouldn't tell him. She snatched the page away from him and wouldn't let him near her room for the rest of the day. She regretted that later, because Robin immediately ordered subscriptions of every girly magazine he could think of. But he couldn't find the ad again.

A month later, he found it. To be precise, he found it in seven magazines. It was a different shot, but it was definitely her. Annoyingly, the magazine didn't credit the photographers. He'd called the jeans company and they told him that they didn't give out the names of their models or photographers to people over the phone. Then they blocked him from calling again. But he discovered that at the very back of the magazine, there were columns of specificities- what dress whoever on the cover was wearing, how much it costs, what company it was from. It also credited freelance photographers.

He couldn't believe his luck. Donna Troy. Wonder Girl. His friend of a few years. That was about a month ago. Since then, he'd been itching to go to New York, which is where Donna was stationed since she left the Amazon and stepped out from under Wonder Woman's shadow. He'd contacted her about the Titans, but she told him she was taking things slowly.

He'd been itching to go, but he was also really nervous. He'd decided to give it a month. Then it would be six months since she left exactly, and that was reason enough to find her.

Now it was time to act. He stood in the garage next to the T-ship and his friends were lined up in front of them.

"Listen, Robin… Dude. Don't be too upset if she doesn't wanna come back. Okay?" Beast Boy asked with a weak a smile.

"She'll come back," Robin answered moodily.

Raven narrowed her eyes at him. "Maybe one of us should go with you. I can teleport you there."

"This is something I have to do on my own."

Raven's gaze didn't waver. "Don't be an idiot."

He didn't know if she meant right now or when he got there. But it didn't matter. Sometimes Raven thought things were stupid when really they were just steeped in emotion. It was a trait they shared. But Robin was never stupid. Sure, he was impulsive sometimes. Sure, sometimes he did things that later, he wishes he didn't. But he felt like he could defend everything he did with simple logic.

"Never," he answered, forcing a tight smile onto his face. Not that he could fool Raven with a facial expression when she could read his emotions as clearly as if he told her outright.

"Don't crash the pod, dude. Without your unit, it's just four fifths of a ship. And we're already down one pilot, so… Just bring 'er back, okay?"

Robin nodded. All of the Titans cared, really. Raven seemed to accept that Starfire was on some kind of journey, but Robin knew that she worried about her sometimes. Beast Boy just joked about everything, which got sort of annoying after a while, but it was how he coped. Cyborg was struggling because he wanted to be supportive of Starfire, but she was like a sister to him and he was desperate to know that she was alright. With a nod at his friends, Robin flipped up into his pod on the T-Ship and took off on his own.

It took a few hours, but Robin landed his pod at the Titan's West Tower. He stayed for about an hour to talk, which he did only because it was polite. Annoyingly, Speedy had found the ad Starfire was in and Robin had to listen to his opinion on that without punching him in the face.

Steel City was about half an hour away from New York. Robin brought the R-cycle with him, and he rode it into the city. He hadn't been to Donna's in a while, but he could still remember the way.

* * *

Starfire landed on the balcony of the New York apartment she shared with Donna Troy. "Donna?" she called. She pushed the glass doors open and entered the living room. "Donna?" she called again. She put the bags she'd been carrying on the ground by the coffee table.

"I'm in here, Kori," a voice called from a closed door.

Starfire sighed and flopped back on the white couch in the living room. That's the dark room. She wasn't supposed to go in there without Donna's permission. Starfire flipped through channels disinterestedly. She stopped when the Jersey shore flipped on.

She sighed wistfully. On the TV, the sun was shining and the people wore bathing suits and shorts. Just because she was able to wear a skirt and sports bra in the snow didn't mean she didn't feel the cold. And it was very cold now.

Snow covered the railing on the balcony. Starfire had to run out to get the special clothes she was supposed to wear for her next photo shoot.

She was a model now. It was an easy job, and she didn't mind wearing the fun outfits, but it was tiring being around so many people that wanted to know just where she was from and if her hair was a natural color and if tallness ran in her family…

When she first arrived in New York, she didn't know where to go. She was planning on going to Titans East, but she was afraid that they would tell her friends where she was and they would convince her to go back. She knew that it wouldn't be hard for someone to convince her to go back, but she just wasn't ready yet.

So she came to New York City. She slept in the bus station her on her first night. That alone was almost enough to make her go crawling back to the Tower. The second day, though, she met Wonder Girl. Starfire had been perusing what appeared to be a more rundown section of the city by air, trying to see if she could possibly find refuge in an abandoned warehouse. She did _not_ want to go back to the bus station.

In one of the warehouses was a woman dressed in a red dress and wide metal gauntlets that were currently being used to deflect bullets. Starfire dove down to aid her, feeling comfortably at home in a crime fighting atmosphere.

After the girls wrapped up their case- which was just shutting down a drug cartel- and the woman introduced herself as Wonder Girl. They arranged for Starfire to live with her in her apartment. To help with rent, Starfire started helping Donna in her budding career as a freelance photographer. At one of the shoots- a deal with Golden Girl Jeans- the owner of the company insisted on having Starfire as his model. Since then, she'd been asked by a few other clothing companies to model for them.

She liked modeling, and it was even better with Donna as her photographer.

"Hello? Earth to Starfire!"

Starfire snapped out of her daydream. "Greetings!"

Donna crossed her arms over her chest. Her black hair was pulled into a long ponytail and it was hanging over her shoulder. She was dressed in civvies- jeans and a cardigan- and she had her camera strung over her neck. "Ready for the next shoot, Kori?" Donna asked with a smile.

Starfire- who had recently started going by the pseudonym Kori Anders- nodded with a smile. "I have retrieved the clothing. They wanted to get shots of me in my home to accompany an interview," she explained, pointing to the bags by the coffee table.

"Hm…" Donna muttered. "Well, my studio technically is your home… but I think they want something homey. So we could dress up the couch there and make it look nice and have you lay on it all sexy," Donna suggested with a smile. "Or something."

"Whatever you wish. Which dress do you think is best?" Starfire nudged the bags at her feet.

"I love being roommates with a model. I get to steal all your awesome clothes," Donna quipped as she bent down to look at the dresses.

Starfire grinned. "They are not actually mine, friend. They belong to the magazine."

"Uh huh. Whatever. Same thing. If you want my professional opinion as s photographer… the couch is white. So while you look tan and orange in a way that somehow looks more Mediterranean goddess than oompah-loompah when you wear white, I think we should go for black. Black'll bring out your eyes and make you look more like an alien sex kitty." Donna curved her fingers in to claws and pretended to growl. "Plus, if I put the red pillows on the couch, it'll look very French."

Starfire nodded, not following very well but liking the enthusiasm in her friend's voice.

"Why don't you put… this on," Donna suggested, holding up a black dress. It had a corset top and a skirt that would hit at her mid-thigh with a layer of tulle peeking out. It was plain, but Starfire had a feeling that that was what Donna was going for. She continued ruffling through the bags and brought out a pair of shoes. Starfire gaped at them. They were at least four inches tall.

"Oh, come on. I know you don't wear heels that often, since you're like ten feet tall anyway, but it's not like you're gonna be walking around. You're gonna be lying down. Like a sex kitty, remember?" Donna made her hand into claws again and Starfire laughed, which was probably the point. "Relax," she soothed as she inspected Starfire's hair and brushed it out of the way so that it parted at the side. She smiled approvingly at her own handiwork. "Models don't shoot well when they're nervous. You change, I'm gonna go grab some stuff for the couch."

Starfire sighed and slipped on the dress. It always made her nervous to put on the clothes she was modeling, especially when they were things like this dress that cost thousands of dollars because of some designer's name on it. She strapped on the shoes, which clasped around her ankle, and then observed her foot. On Tamaran, it was custom to go barefoot unless one was dressed in armor or was going to be doing a lot of walking. No footwear as restrictive as this could be found anywhere on her entire planet. Well, she was definitely experiencing Earth now.

She lay back on the couch, the tulle scratching her a little bit. Just as she was getting comfortable, the buzzer sounded on the wall next to the door. Someone was trying to get in. "Donna?" Starfire called unsurely. She could get it, but she never had any visitors since none of her friends knew where she was right now, and she didn't want to greet one of Donna's friends dressed like this.

"I'll get it, Kori, it's all right."

Starfire leaned back on the couch and looked back at the television, wishing she could be on the beach instead of wearing strange clothes in a strange city with one friend in the whole world. She felt foolish, because she'd done this to herself, but she knew she made the right decision.

* * *

The building was okay looking. Robin thought that most apartments all looked the same, whether they were in New York or Gotham or Jump or Steel. He found the buzzer with the last name Troy printed next to it and he buzzed it. He waited a few seconds and just as he was starting to wonder if she was home, her voice came through the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Donna. It's Robin."

She gasped in surprise. "Dick?"

"Um, yeah. Robin," he corrected uncomfortably.

"Hera, sorry, you're probably in uniform and I shouldn't use your real… Never mind, come on up."

The door buzzed and he let himself in. He could have gotten in, anyway. All it took to get into apartments nowadays was to demagnetize the locks on the door, which could be done by either draining the power or-

He sighed. He was nervous and distracting himself. He'd chit chat for a little while… obligatory questions about Wonder Woman and answers about Batman… and then he'd have to ask her about Starfire. There was no way she could forget shooting Star. He might be a little biased, but Starfire wasn't the kind of person that slipped through peoples' memories. She'd be able to tell him what agency she worked for. She might even know where she lived.

He climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, where Donna's apartment was. Her door pulled open a little. He pushed it open all the way. "Donna?" he called softly.

She appeared from around the corner and pulled him into a hug. "Dick! Hera, it's been a while. How is everything? You're still doing that Teen Titans thing, right?"

"Yep. Everything's fine. Actually, about the team, I was wondering if-"

"Dick, as much as I would love to catch up with you, you should know that one of my friends is here," she said quickly before he could divulge any information he might want kept quiet. "Well, actually, I picked up a roommate. You might want to meet her, actually. I think you'll find that she's pretty interesting!" Donna offered.

Robin sighed, slightly annoyed that this was probably going to take longer than he'd thought. "Isn't my being here gonna blow your whole Wonder Girl cover?"

"Nah, it's okay. She knows. Go in the living room, my roommate's in there. I just have to grab a few things; I'm setting up for a shoot," Donna explained, gesturing to the camera hanging around her neck.

"Yeah, okay. But then I need to talk to you."

"Sure, whatever you want." She gave him a little push toward the living room.

Robin rolled his eyes as he approached the living room and he could hear the annoying sounds of someone watching Jersey Shore. Then he stopped dead. He let his mouth fall open.

"Donna, I do not think that these shoes are-" Starfire stopped talking as she turned around and saw Robin in the door way. "X'hal. Robin."

He stood, frozen. He never in a million years would have expected that. Robin thought that generally he was pretty good at expecting the unexpected. Apparently, he wasn't good at that when it concerned Starfire.

He didn't remember moving, but suddenly he was in front of her. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, completely shocked.

She just stared at him, looking equally if not more shocked. "What am _I_ doing here? This is where I have made my residence! What are _you_ doing here?"

"Looking for you. And I must be better than I thought, because… well, there you are."

"You should not have done that," she reprimanded softly.

"What are you wearing?" he asked, gesturing to her dress.

She blushed a little. "I have… become a model."

"Of course you have," Robin muttered. "What else is a beautiful girl like you going to do in New York?"

"Stop that, Robin," Starfire ordered in a warning tone.

"Starfire, come back to Jump with me," he pleaded.

"No, Robin. I live here," she reminded him firmly.

"I came all the way out here to come get you. Doesn't that mean anything to you?" he asked, his voice pleading instead of accusing.

Starfire shut her eyes. He was getting to her. "I came all the way out here to leave you. Doesn't _that_ mean anything to _you_?"

He stared down at her. "Why are you trying so hard to hurt me?" As he said it, a weird, cold pain seemed to spread out from his chest until it enveloped his body. Breathing hurt. Blinking hurt. Moving hurt. Everything hurt but looking at her.

She shook her head, blinking rapidly. "Robin…"

The way she said his name made a trickle of warmth pierce through the coldness. He needed that. He needed more of it now and he would need it tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.

She struggled to her feet. "I cannot… I must go…" She moved to take a step forward and her ankle bent beneath her. She cried out in pain and frustration and Robin kneeled to catch her. He was afraid that she would fight him like she did the day she left, but she didn't. She sunk into his arms and buried her head against his neck.

He pulled her closer to him. The warmth of her solar powered body made the cold pain evaporate. Her breath against his neck was driving out whatever rational thought he had left. He brushed his fingers through her silky hair a few times and she raised her head to look him. He wondered if he would ever think that the color of her eyes was ordinary. Even after knowing her for over a year and- until six months ago- seeing her every day, he was still surprised by just how green her eyes were.

Then they were kissing. His thoughts bunched together messily. He didn't know whether he started it or she did, but her lips were on his and her hands were around his neck and his fingers were in her hair and he hated that he wore gloves because he wanted trail his fingers over her collar bone because it was always covered and now it wasn't and-

"Athena's eyes! Dick!"

He also hated Donna right now.

Starfire jerked away from him and hovered above the ground next to Donna.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"It's not like I just- I mean we're- we were-" he stammered, glaring at Donna and blushing at the same time.

"And what about you, Kori?" the Amazonian demanded, planting her hands on her hips.

Starfire just shook her head.

"Hera. When I said that my friend is interesting, Dick, I meant because she had superpowers!"

Robin narrowed his eyes at her and, realizing that he was still in the rather undignified position of kneeling on the floor, he stood and brushed himself off calmly. "I know that. She didn't tell you that she used to be on my team?" Robin looked at Starfire accusingly.

Donna turned to her. "No. She didn't. Why didn't you mention that to me?"

"I mentioned that I was not from around here…" Starfire mumbled guiltily.

"I thought you meant that because you were from, like, outer space." Donna crossed her arms over chest. She sighed. "I had her hair just the way I wanted it." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "But I guess this is kind of sexy. If you did anything to the dress…"

Robin stared at her. She was making him really uncomfortable. "Did anything to-? I'm not some kind of… of…" he stammered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said dismissively.

"Friend?" Starfire asked timidly as Donna inspected the dress she was wearing and fluffed the tulle at the skirt a little. "Might we perhaps move the taking of the pictures to a later-"

"Oh, no. I realize that I'm caught in the middle of something, but if you want to leave you're gonna do it after I get my pictures." Donna pulled Starfire back down to the ground and ran her fingers through her hair to tease it out a little in certain places.

"Leave? I never said that I was going to-"

Donna raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Okay, I guess I'm on the outside looking in and maybe I have this all wrong, but from what I can tell, you ran away from your past or your team or from him. And you've been found. You're either going back with him or you're bolting."

Starfire glanced at Robin nervously befre giving Donna a helpless look. "I would prefer it if he wasn't…"

"Fine," Robin grumbled moodily.

He stalked off into the apartment. From the front where Donna met him at the door, there was a hall to the left that led to the living room, a hall in front of him the led to a kitchenette and a door that was probably a closet or bathroom, and a hall to the right. He took that and it led him to the bathroom and two bedrooms.

He stepped into one and immediately identified it as Donna's. She had a pretty nondescript room, with a pale blue rug and a plaid bedspread and red curtains. Pictures of Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta were posted around the room. There was a framed picture of Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Aqualad, and Donna as Wonder Girl on the table next to her bed. The picture made him smile. There was even a picture of Starfire and Donna dressed in civilian clothes with their arms around each other's shoulders.

A look out Donna's window revealed the sun winking out behind the horizon. It got dark so early in winter.

He left the room and looked uncertainly into Starfire's. He glanced guiltily down the hall and ducked into the room. The walls and carpet where white and beige respectively, but the duet on the bed was white with bright pink polka dots and the pillows were bright pink, which confirmed that it was indeed Starfire's room. He had trouble imagining Starfire here. Living an ordinary life, doing ordinary things, eating ordinary food. Sleeping in a square bed instead of a round one. It seemed wrong for someone as extraordinary as her.

There were no pictures anywhere in her room, except for a framed one of Silkie on the dresser across from her bed. That stung a little, actually. She kept a picture of a mutant larva, but not of her friends? He would have been angry, but there was something about the room that made him calm. Maybe it was that it was so imbued with _her_. A pink laptop was resting on the dresser next to the picture of Silkie. He _really_ wanted to hack into it and see what she'd been doing. Maybe get her IP address and track it back home. He resisted the urge.

He walked over to her closet. There were a few uniforms folded and stacked on the floor in the corner and a few of her purple boots were next to them, and he caught the sight of her headpiece she was wearing when she first landed on Earth on the shelf close to the ceiling. She had a bunch of different shirts, and Robin tried imagining her in them. She'd never worn anything but her uniform the entire time her knew her, except for that one time she'd one a pink prom dress, or when she wore that Tamaranean wedding dress, or that one time he'd come back from training with the True Master and he found all of his friends in his uniform… but she'd never worn normal clothes. He wondered if the shirts she had rested too high on her stomach like his uniform shirt did.

Feeling a little weird about rummaging through her closet, he stepped back and shut the door. He flopped onto her bed and inhaled the raspberry scent of her shampoo that lingered on her pillows. He heard a rustling noise as his head made contact with her pillow.

He stuck his hand underneath it and closed his fingers around the edge of a picture. It was of the five of them, and it had to be some kind of promotional picture. They were all ready for action- Raven's eyes were glowing white, Cyborg's cannon was engaged, Starfire had starbolts charged in her hands and her eyes were glowing, Robin was holding in his staff in an offense stance, and Beast Boy was crouched at Cyborg's feet, looking ready to pounce. It was a little crumpled from being under her pillow, and he wondered why he kept it there.

He leaned back against her pillow to observe it, the way she must have been doing before she went to sleep at night. He wondered if she thought of him. He wondered if she wondered if he thought about her. Did she really think he didn't? Did she think he would just let her go?

Robin leaned his head back against the pillow. He heard another rustling sound. He lifted the pillow and saw a small square right under the place where his head was. He took it and unfolded it carefully. It was a picture of the two of them. He remembered when they'd taken the picture. It was a long time ago. They'd been at the carnival and some guy was taking overpriced pictures and he didn't even want to get his picture taken. But Starfire had pulled him into a hug- not a tight one where he felt like his organs were being squished together inside his chest. It was a happy little hug, with her arms around his neck and he eyes squeezed shut and her mouth curved into a contented smile and her head tilted against his temple so she could face the camera. He wasn't even smiling. His mouth was open and he was very clearly blushing and the only reason he'd put his hand on her back between her shoulder blades was so that she didn't accidentally knock him over. He didn't even know she'd gone to get the picture after it was taken.

It was creased very deeply from being folded and unfolded often. He slid it and the other picture back under her pillow, rolling away so that he was lying horizontally on her bed. He was laying supine, and he pillowed his head in his arms.

When Starfire finally came in, the sun had set completely. She had those ridiculous heels in her hand, and he lifted his head slightly to look at her. She shut the door behind her and chewed her lip. He thought that you could probably cut holes in a garbage bag and put it on Starfire and she would look great. It was very distracting to see her standing in front of him in that dress. Personally, he thought it was a little ridiculous, with the corseted top and the silly tulle skirt, but it really _did_ things for her. Made her look curvy. And Donna was right about her hair looking sexy. It curled around the nape of her neck and fell over one shoulder, where the red locks gave way to the deep black of the corset.

He forced himself to focus when she started talking. "You must leave."

He sat up and leaned on his palms. "No."

She stared at him blankly.

"I won't leave unless you come back with me," he informed her.

"Then you will have to live in my room, because I am not going back yet," she snapped.

Robin raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay," he said evenly. He lay back down on her bed, pillowing his head in his arms again.

"You are making jokes." She sounded annoyed.

"You offered," he pointed out.

"Robin, please," she begged.

He couldn't say no to her when she used that tone of voice. He sat up again. "At least talk to me, then."

She tapped her fingers together nervously. "Very well."

He narrowed his eyes at her. She was pacing in front of her door and she wouldn't come into her room any farther. She was also not looking at him. This was no way to conduct an investigation. "Would you sit down?" he asked, letting a little bit of annoyance creep into his voice.

She shook her head.

He exhaled violently. "Fine. I'll get up." He stood and leaned against her door. "Now will you sit?"

She glanced at the bed unsurely before sitting on the edge of it, facing him.

"Why won't you come back?" he asked softly.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I have not finished discovering your planet," she answered slowly.

He narrowed his eyes at her again. He almost wished she would say it was because of him that she left. He knew that was why, despite what she and Raven both told him.

"Doesn't it mean anything to you that I want you to come back?"

She went rigid. He didn't exactly mean start with that, but he couldn't exactly take it back. "We do not always get what we want," she whispered. She twisted the duvet in her fingers.

Robin pushed his fingers through his hair. "Fine, okay, whatever. Starfire, I've been wondering… Why did you kiss me before you left?" He felt all the emotions he felt back then rush through him again. Anger, betrayal, hurt, confusion, loss…

She squeezed her eyes shut. "I would like to apologize for that." She paused and opened her eyes tentatively. "Raven told me that I should refrain from displays of affection. She said that it would just be worse. But I wished for you to know how I truly felt."

"What do you mean?" Robin urged gently. She was getting upset, and it was getting hard for him to stay pressed against the door.

"I wanted you to know that even though I was leaving I still… cared for you." She exhaled slowly and the breath left her throat shakily.

He squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his head back against the door. Her words soothed an old wound even as they ripped a new one into him. There was silence between them as he tried to gather himself. "Do you still?" He tried to force his voice out, but all that he could muster was a hoarse whisper.

"What?" she asked, and he wasn't sure if she was surprised or she couldn't hear him.

He jerked forward and put his hands on the mattress on either side of her legs and bent to position his mouth in front of her ear. "Do you still care for me," he whispered again.

She leaned back to put space between them. She was looking up at him, her eyes wide and full of fear and worry and something else. Something much more familiar and welcome. Reluctantly, she nodded. "Yes," she breathed. She was still leaning back.

She looked so _inviting _leaning back like that. That and the look of raw emotion in her eyes pulled him closer to her. He kneeled in front of her and slipped a hand around her waist and slid it to the small of her back. He hovered his lips over hers before pulling back so that he was kneeling in front of her. He let his hand drop away from her back. God, he wanted her to say that again. "Yes, what?"

She looked surprised now. She sat up a little so that she was a few inches away from him. "I do not…"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yes, what?" he asked impatiently.

"Robin…" she murmured. She slid her hands over his shoulders and leaned into him. She tried to press her lips against his, but he pulled back. He just wanted to hear her say it.

He could still feel her breath on his mouth when he repeated, "Yes, what?"

"Yes, I care for you!" she shouted. "I care for you so much that it hurts! I care for you so much that it scares me! I care for you so much that even though I know that I should not be speaking to you or allowing you in my room, I do not care because when I am with you I feel as though a weight has been lifted from me that has present for the last one hundred eighty-four days that I have been away from you!" Her eyes shone with tears but she blinked them back.

Robin gaped at her. He was torn between knocking her back on the mattress and kissing her like it was the last kiss he'd ever get in his life and leaving because she seemed to need him to on some level.

The decision was made for him when she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down by leaning back until her back hit the mattress.

He barely had time to brace himself on his palms so that he didn't crush her underneath him. She wrapped her arms around his neck until her elbows crossed. He kissed her hard and she slipped her tongue into his mouth. After a few moments he broke away and pressed feathery kisses against her throat and across her collar bone. He slid his fingers from her knee up until he hit the tulle on her skirt and then back down again.

She unhooked his cape from his uniform and wasted no time in undoing the clasps at his vest. She slipped her fingers beneath the Kevlar just under his throat and he made an annoyed sound in his throat.

"That's no fair. How do I get this damn thing off?" he demanded, pulling at the fabric of her dress.

Starfire smirked and rolled under him, showing her back. She pulled her hair over one shoulder, revealing a zipper. He grabbed it and pressed kisses on her neck as he pulled it down, revealing a strapless bra. He pulled the dress down her hips and when she rolled again so that she was facing him, he kissed her on the mouth again.

She tangled her fingers in his hair and slid her hands down to his shoulders. She rolled them both over so that she was leaning over him. She pressed kisses down his throat before stopping where his shoulder met his neck. She sucked on the skin there, probably forming a bruise. She licked the spot once before moving away from him.

"Hey," he protested, grabbing for her. "Get back here."

"Robin," she said softly. "Can we not sleep?"

He frowned. She couldn't just slam on the brakes like that! She looked slightly apologetic and very timid. He sighed. "Anything you want," he murmured, reaching up and pushing her hair behind her ear. "But if you don't at least put on pants, we're gonna have a problem." He let his eyes drift over her thighs, admiring the view while he had it.

She gave him a soft smile before rolling away from the bed. She returned a minute later in pink sweatpants and a black tank top. "Will you be all right with no pajamas?"

He kicked off his shoes and threw his shirt on the floor next to her bed. "I'll be fine."

She drew back the covers and crawled under them, and he followed her. She curled against him, rubbing her cheek against his chest and placing soft kisses against it. Robin put his arm over her waist stroked her hair with his other hand.

He woke up what felt like moments later, but the sun was shedding light in the room. She was gone. He swore and threw the covers away, as if he could expect to find her under them. He rolled onto his stomach and reached under her pillow. The pictures were gone. He cradled his face in his hands and let his head flop forward onto the pillow. He slid his shirt on and clasped his belt into place. He ran a hand through his hair and tossed his feet over the side of the bed before sliding them into his shoes. He fastened his cape into place. The only thing missing was his communicator.

He tried to sneak out the door with all the stealth he'd picked up from training with Batman, but Donna was in the kitchenette having coffee. "Dick?" she called.

He wanted to slam his head against the wall. "Yeah."

"You're still here?" she asked playfully.

"Actually, I'm here _instead_," he answered irritably.

"What? When did she leave?" Donna asked, sounding upset.

"I don't know. Somewhere between last night and this morning."

"She snuck out on you? Batman would be horrified."

"Shut up," he snapped. He closed the door behind him. He'd have to call her and apologize later, but right now he was going to get the hell back to Jump and try to forget that any of that ever happened.

**Hm. I guess that was a pretty crappy deal for Robin. He's got… certain parts of his anatomy that are now blue… and he got ditched. Five more and blam, guys! If not, see you in a week! Here's your teaser:**

The light from her starbolts turned the hallway green and made the part her light couldn't reach even darker. She was absolutely certain that someone was standing in that dark part of the hallway.

She made her voice low and intimidating. "I am giving you three seconds to come toward me with your hands above your head before I aim a starbolt at you," she growled in French.

There was no response. Maybe she was wrong. "_Trois… deux…_" she counted. She left a long pause and leaned forward before she finished. "_Un_." She balled her right hand into a fist and fired a weak starbolt ahead of her.


	3. St Martinique

**Okay, last one! Thanks for reviewing. You guys are great. And even if you didn't, and you're more of a slink in the shadows and appreciate from afar types, that's cool, too. Don't be afraid to drop my by profile and shoot me a PM or something, though. I want to know what you guys think! Right. On with the story! **

Nightwing stalked through the Tower in his civvies. Since he and Babs split up a week ago, he'd been feeling restless. He missed the distraction she provided. He winced at his own thoughts. That wasn't fair to her at all. Maybe that was why she'd broken up with him.

It wasn't like their relationship didn't mean anything to him. They didn't see each other entirely often, anyway, what with her being stationed in Gotham and him in Jump. They both tried to get the other to move to their own city, but they were both stubborn. She didn't want to leave the Birds of Prey; he didn't want to leave the Titans.

That's what they were, now. The Titans. The 'Teen' had been dropped lately. Most of them were at least twenty-one- Changeling was nineteen, almost twenty, but even he'd changed his name from Beast Boy to Changeling.

They were busy as ever. The H.I.V.E Five had graduated to the Fearsome Five, whose members fluctuated but were always a hassle to dispatch. Kid Flash had taken his mentor's place as Flash, and he had duties with the JLA to take care of, plus his own apprentice, which was odd enough. He had his hands full without bothering with Titan stuff.

Speedy had gone on to be Arsenal, and he'd become something of a problem. After falling out with Green Arrow, he left the Titans to become a mercenary. Nightwing never looked forward to any confrontations with him.

Changeling was hitting a button on the controller to the Gamestation repeatedly while Cyborg watched grimly. "I _know_ you don't think you can beat my high score," Cyborg was grumbling, tense as he watched his friend play through the game.

Raven was watching her boyfriend play the game, which appeared to be Halo or Call of Duty- Nightwing didn't play either very often and had a hard time differentiating- and she looked slightly disinterested. She'd switched back to her white uniform about a year ago, maybe a little more. However long she and Changeling had been dating; Nightwing couldn't remember at the moment.

He tried to grab the keys to his bike off the counter quietly, but there was no getting past Raven's empathic powers. She turned to face him. "Where are you off to?"

"St. Martinique," he answered, not bothering to come up with a lie.

She rolled her eyes. "Are you coming back tonight?"

"Don't know," he answered.

He used to sneak off whenever his friends were busy, or when he just needed a break. Sometimes he'd lie and say he was going back to Gotham, or to New York to visit Donna, or say he was going to train with the True Master for a few days. But they found out where he was going eventually. It wasn't long after they found out where he was going that they found out _why_ he was going, and they were pretty angry with him for keeping it to himself.

That didn't stop him from going. And it especially didn't stop him from going on his own. The rest of his team stopped asking him to take them with him after a while. Raven and Changeling went a few months ago and used his beach house, a little one bedroom hut on the water. He didn't even want them to go, because it's hard for people not to notice a guy with green skin, but Raven told him he owed them and he didn't argue with her. He didn't rent the house in his own name, anyway. He got it under the pseudonym John Gray. So it wasn't thee cleverest of fake names. It did its purpose.

"Any shows coming up?" Raven asked, determined to talk to him at least a little before he left.

"Um, I think so. Maybe. I didn't check yet. I just need a break," he answered truthfully.

"Fine." Raven turned back to the television. "Go. We'll let you know if anything happens."

Now that he had permission, Nightwing walked leisurely to the garage. Even though he'd be going across the country and halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, all he needed was his bike, thanks to Cyborg's unspeakably awesome updates. The thing was not only a really cool looking bike- the new colors made it look really sleek- but it was practically a jet. It hovered and could go pretty fast, but he couldn't fly very high because of the changes in the atmosphere. Nightwing shook his hair out. He'd decided to stop spiking it and was considering growing it out, but he wasn't ready to take the plunge just yet. The only downside to not spiking it was that now it got in his eyes occasionally.

He slipped his helmet over his slanted domino mask and revved the engine on the blue, black, and gold bike before engaging the thrusters and jetting off the island. He didn't need to take anything- his hut had a week's worth of civilian clothes and a safe with enough money to buy a new Batmobile, if he chose. Unfortunately, he usually used it for much less interesting chores, like grocery shopping or getting more clothes.

And, not to forget, bribery. When he was in St. Martinique, Nightwing was used to constantly dropping names and money. He couldn't think of many things that were more satisfying than when the three syllables of his name could get him into a club or preferred seat at a show. Sometimes a different two-syllable name was needed, and while that wasn't as satisfying, it was usually effective. If he coupled the name with a small wad of cash, he could almost do anything he wanted. It was the same feeling he got when he was on patrol duty in Jump. Something of a power trip, but with the knowledge that he was using the power to help other people. Well, in St. Martinique, he usually used it to help himself, but he would give bartenders and waitresses and bouncers pretty generous tips. So that was something.

Nightwing landed outside his little hut a few hours later. He couldn't help but smile a little. The trip was shorter than a trip to New York on his old bike. Technology was great.

He could see the allure of St. Martinique. Although the annoying language the locals spoke wasn't quite French, and sometimes it took him a moment or so to understand what people were saying to him, it was picturesque. Tropical. Language wouldn't have been a problem for her, anyway.

He grabbed his laptop and propped it against his knees as he lay back on his bed. He typed her name on the keyboard without really having to think about it. His fingers were on auto pilot. Kori Anders, the pride of St. Martinique. The supermodel that popped up out of nowhere after a few shoots with Golden Girls jeans. The girl whose raw talent and beauty could bring any man with eyes and a libido to his knees. They said she floated down the runways. They said her eyes glowed in the light. They said her complexion never faded, even in winter. They said she had the grace of a cat and the fierceness of a warrior. Everyone wanted her- runways, designers, endorsements… She never took high end deals, though. She stayed with small shows, even though fashion week designers begged her to come to Paris, and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was ready to offer her the last run on the catwalk. It was like she was trying to keep a low profile.

Nightwing smiled at that. The futility of it was absurd. No model that looked like her or did what she did as well as she did it could possibly keep a low profile. Sure, her outright refusal to take any job that brought her to America or put her in American magazines or on American TV did a lot to keep her from getting as famous as she could be. But surely she had to know that he'd be able to find her.

Her digital footprint was surprisingly small for a model. Usually girls like that wanted to have a page on a website with contact information. But it looked like she chose what jobs she did and when she did them. But there were still ways.

She had amassed a group fans who gathered together on sites like tumblr and twitter. They'd post about what show she was rumored to have booked. They'd post addresses that they thought were hers, snapped pictures of her on their phones, helped each other try to find her. Nightwing had a special affection for these people. They made his job so easy. He could find her whenever he wished, just by doing a few searches on tumblr and sorting through posts that speculated about her diet or hair color or assets and whether or not they were real to find the helpful ones. They were so mundane looking, and they often would be of no help to anyone else trying to find her.

For instance: once he was having a particularly bad day and someone had snapped a picture of her in Denmark an hour before a show she was supposed to be in. It took some convincing, but he got Raven to teleport him there before she actually went on. She always went back to St. Martinique, and until a few months ago, he wasn't sure exactly here in St. Martinique she lived.

Then he found her.

It was a complete and total accident. He'd been out a little later than usual and he'd been drinking. He wasn't even sure what the drinking age was in St. Martinique. He'd been talking to a girl- one of the nameless, faceless distractions between Babs and Starfire- and maybe she was bringing him home or to another bar- he couldn't quite remember- but he saw her. He saw her and his breath was knocked out of him and sobriety was knocked into him.

It wasn't the sight of her that did it. He considered himself an expert when it came to looking at her. He looked at her on the computer, in foreign magazines, and at her shows when he could make it. Not to mention old pictures from years ago when they were younger. What made him so shaken was how approachable she was. She was maybe a hundred yards away, just her. She must have escaped whatever company she was keeping nowadays. She was wearing a bikini and a sheer skirt that tied in a knot at her hip.

He would have gone over there and spoken to her if he wasn't with that girl that he couldn't remember now, and he was glad that he didn't. Someone called her name and she turned to face them with a soft smile. A man around Nightwing's age with shoulder length gingery hair and green eyes and he _knew_ it wasn't Roy Harper. A second man, a little younger than the first, with black hair and blue eyes and a slightly sulky expression came up behind them. The girl pulled Nightwing away before he could get a good look, though. He was able to squirm away from the girl after a few minutes and find Starfire again. The two men were walking away and she watched them before sitting on the sand and letting the water pushed onto the shore lap at her bare toes before receding.

9She went home after a few minutes, which was a really pretty but small hut type of house that was built over the water. It had a section of the floor made out of glass so that she could see the water beneath it, he'd discovered upon closer investigation. Not that he'd ever been in it himself. Really, that had to change this trip, and soon. Last time he came here, he'd had to leave before he could snoop around much, as the Titans were having issues capturing Dr. Light again.

Shortly after seeing her again he went back to Gotham and started dating Babs for the… second or third time, he couldn't remember. That made him feel like an ass. He picked his hand up to run it through his hair, forgetting that it wasn't spiked anymore.

From the look of things, and the flurry of excitement in her little group of ultra-devoted fans, she had a show tonight in St. Martinique. It wasn't that much of a coincidence, really. He thought she might. There was a show in St. Martinique this weekend and she usually appeared there. It was set to start at around seven.

He closed his laptop and leaned back against the mattress. He pulled out his Titans communicator and flipped it around his fingers for a minute. He made Cyborg turn off communications to his old one that was apparently missing after his… whatever it was with Starfire in Donna's apartment four years ago. But he went back and added the old communicator to a special frequency that could only be reached from his new communicator. He didn't know why he did it. She might not have kept it. The old communicator didn't show up on any of the trackers, so presumably it was broken.

But something made him waste two days setting up the special, closed off frequency. He guessed that he hoped that it wasn't broken and that she'd just disabled the tracking mechanism. She was surprisingly apt when it came to anything technologic. And he hoped that she would be able to find a way to charge it. If she wanted to charge it badly enough, it shouldn't have been a problem.

He switched to her frequency and pressed the talk button. "Hey, Star. I don't know where you are right now. I miss you." Well, he didn't know _exactly _where she was right now. He started out all his one-sided talks with her like that. Once he actually found out where she was, he couldn't just change it. "I told you that Babs broke up with me on Sunday. I know I told you that I wasn't as upset as I probably should be. But it's been kind of a rough week."

He paused. Sometimes it felt good to talk to her like this, even though there was a really big chance that she wasn't listening. He'd never done this while he was actually in St. Martinique before. He certainly wasn't about to mention that to her. He decided to keep it vague. "So I'm laying here in my civvies…"

* * *

It was 5:30, Atlantic Standard Time. Starfire was propped in a tall chair, her eyes closed gently as a makeup artist bent over her and brushed powder over her lids.

Around her, so many people were speaking so many languages that she was having trouble keeping track of who was speaking what and what she should answer with. French, Antillean Creole, and English floated around her as easily as water, and she understood every word. Although she was speaking more French lately than English, English was still her default.

"Miss?" Her makeup artist called, pulling away.

"_Quoi?_ What?" she asked, using both languages, opening her eyes to look at the makeup artist.

"I think your phone is going off…" the slender man said in French, looking a little annoyed as he held a fluffy brush in one hand and a glass container full of white powder in the other.

"_Je suis desolée…" _she murmured, reaching into her pocket. It wasn't her phone. She stuck tiny headphones into the jack on the old communicator and Robin's voice filled her head like in her dreams. She closed her eyes again and the makeup artist eyed the wires, but didn't complain about it.

"…but it's been a rough week." There was a pause. "So I'm laying here in my civs and I'm wondering what you're doing. Honestly, I don't think about you as often as I used to, Star, and I haven't in a while. But I wish you were with me now. I could really use someone to talk to. Raven tries, but sometimes I get the feeling that she only knows what to say to be comforting and she doesn't really understand. And I know that you would."

She felt cool cream line her eyes and flare out a little.

"I feel like I'm slipping. Bruce is back, now, and Tim and Damian and I are close, but somehow I feel separated. Maybe it's because I left Gotham. I feel like I can't really relate to them. Which is nuts, because we were literally raised by the same guy. If I can't relate to them, then who can I relate to you? But, I don't know. The team is still together, but I think it's slipping. Raven and Beast Boy are really serious, and I think they might get married. Which is great, but who wants to be married and do what we do? Cyborg and Sarah, too. Sarah's great, she's really sweet, and she's supportive of Cyborg. But she worries about him. And he worries about her worrying about him. I guess the point is, we're splitting into three groups. And they all have someone else. But me…"

He sighed. "Not that I can talk. You're an alien. Seven billion people in the world and only a handful know the truth."

She was about to yank the headphones out of her ears when he added, "I hope you're okay. I hope you don't feel alone. I know it's been… God, years… but I'm always gonna be here for you."

She pulled the headphones away. He hadn't gotten sentimental with her in a while. She couldn't listen to this right now. Her makeup artist had been dusting her face with powder and he pulled away.

"Miss, if you would please open your eyes. It is time for the mascara."

She slipped the communicator in her pocket. She looked up as she went through the all too familiar routine. She was whisked away from her makeup artist and put in another chair in front of a mirror and her hair was pulled and twisted and flattened. The stylist went with waves that fell down her back freely, which was nice because she preferred to leave her hair down.

Then came the clothes. The designer thrust two outfits into one of his assistants' hands and spoke to her hurriedly. "Okay, _Cherie_," the designer crooned in a thick Parisian accent. "I have two outfits for you today. The first is gold with blue and black accents, like the sky in the morning. Okay? And the second one is black with deep blue and purple tones that shimmer as you walk. Like night. Okay?"

"Okay," she answered, trying to keep the mocking tone out of her voice.

He didn't seem to notice. "You have a makeup change between the outfits, okay, but the hair stays the same. Okay?"

"Okay," she answered, not bothering to hide her tone.

He still didn't seem to notice. "You will be perfect. I am the lucky one, eh? You are exquisite, _Cherie_. Okay?"

"_Merci_," she answered mostly to be polite and not because she was sincere.

He rushed off to consult another model.

Starfire unceremoniously changed into the first outfit. When she began modeling, she used to be shy about where she changed. That lost its charm quickly and by now she could probably drop her top in the middle of a mall if she had to. Okay, that was an exaggeration. But not by as much as one would think.

The first piece was kind of shapeless, but her curves gave it shape. The color against her skin had a nice effect, although she wasn't crazy about the piece. The shoulder pads made her feel like she was from the eighties, although when she slipped on the white heels and glanced in a mirror it looked pretty all right. It wasn't her favorite piece, but there were much worse.

She was lined up with other girls. Her position was near the front, which she supposed made sense if this first outfit was morning and the other was night. At seven o'clock, the designer walked out on the runway and introduced the show. Music with a strangely electric tone and a nice bass thrummed out and the first girl took off.

Starfire didn't feel nervous. She sometimes did feel nervous before a show, but this was a pretty small affair and she was mostly doing it because one of the designers she modeled for in larger shows knew this designer and recommended her.

Her turn came and she stepped out into the music and lights. One would think that it would be hot on the catwalk, with all those lights and the sheer number of people packed into the stadium. But the air backstage was so stuffy that out in the open the air was almost cool. As she walked, she kept her chin tilted up and she let the corners of her mouth pull up into a soft ghost of a smile. Normally, models smiled only rarely on the catwalk, but she decided to leave the edgier tricks for the second outfit.

She kept her footing light and dainty and she trained her eyes on a spot that was a little above what was comfortable eye level, in an effort to keep her chin slightly raised.

She got to the end of the runway and paused, turning to show the side of the dress and turning again to show the other side. She spun gracefully and made her way back to the other side of the runway. She could see the next girl coming toward her and she let out a small breath, knowing that the attention was probably on the newer outfit.

As she was going back, something caught her eye. It was a man. She quickly trained her eyes back in front of her. The room was filled with men. One shouldn't catch her attention like that. It was sloppy modeling to look into the crowd, anyway.

She passed above him and she could see him in her peripheral vision. His gaze didn't flicker to the other girl on the runway at all. His eyes were fixed on her. He had black hair. Noticing that made her heart flutter and her pulse jump. Even after years of separation, _one_ guy has _one _thing in common with him and she gets all excited. She jerked her chin up and exited the runway.

When she finally stopped walking she was out of breath, which was odd. She felt herself blushing as she realized that just the sight of that strange man had done that to her. The assistant from before rushed over to her and thrust the second dress at her.

Starfire grabbed it and inspected it. This one was shorter, with a high neckline. With her body type, Starfire was used to modeling lower cut dresses with a slightly longer hem, but she was nothing if not versatile. She changed into it, liking the way the slinky material felt against her skin. It really did shimmer in the light- dark blue and purple sequins were clustered at the hem of the dress and continued up, becoming more and more sparse until they stopped appearing at all around the bust. She swapped her heels for ankle boots. The whole ensemble was very edgy.

She was taken back to the makeup artist, who dabbed on darker lipstick and a black and purple smoky eye. She was put back in line and found herself wishing she had the communicator on her to occupy her time while she waited, even though it was highly improbable that he would talk into the communicator twice in one day. He generally only did it once every two weeks or so, although it was hardly a regular thing. This week he'd reached out twice, although that was only because his girlfriend had broken up with him. She couldn't say she was sad about it.

Once she'd woken up at five in the morning to his voice flooding out through the circular device. He just spoke to her whenever the idea struck him.

That and her carefully stashed pictures were the only contact she allowed herself with her former friends. Truthfully, she was getting tired of doing this. She felt fulfilled, and she no longer felt like Robin was her only reason for being on Earth, which was the whole point of leaving in the first place. Now it was a matter of deciding when to go back. She couldn't just waltz back into the Tower and pretend everything was the way it used to be.

Besides, she was kind of hanging out with Jason Todd and Roy Harper now. Not that she really put much stock into their friendship. They found each other because they needed the company. They would probably understand if she left. Jason would, anyway.

A girl behind her pushed her forward. Starfire blinked and realized that she was up next.

She let her mouth tug into a determined frown and she let her eyes blaze a little, although, of course, not literally.

The girl in front of her turned to come back and Starfire took a step forward, going for a determined prowl instead of the dainty walk she chose before. She caught sight of that man again. She looked to the side and tried to cover up her glance it him by sweeping her eyes across the runway and tossing her hair back. She turned and arched her back slightly, careful not to lean too far back and slip. She turned again and flipped her hair over her shoulder before turning again. Her eyes met that same man's and she felt goosebumps crawl up her arms. She looked up and tried not to rush as she made her way off the runway.

She needed to go. Now. It usually took a while to leave, what with returning dresses and shoes and accessories, but Starfire found that one assistant. "I believe I am going to be sick," she said, holding her stomach for effect.

"Oh, God," the woman muttered, alarmed. "Um, do you need a bathroom?"

"I would rather change out of the dress first," Starfire suggested weakly.

"Of course. Here, I'll help you." The woman unhooked a clasp at the neck and pulled down a zipper. Starfire wriggled out of the dress and slipped on her own blue peasant shirt and dark wash jeans. She slid on her pale blue flip flops and returned the clothes to the assistant.

"Thank you," Starfire murmured before rushing off toward the bathrooms. She stopped in there even though she wasn't really feeling sick. She tried to wipe the eye makeup off, but it was a futile effort. She would need makeup remover.

She exited the building hurriedly, wanting to leave before she got caught up in the pedestrian traffic. She grabbed her purse and reached in it for her house keys. The main reason she got a house away from Jason and Roy was because hers was within easy walking distance to the studio. Of course, she could fly over all of St. Martinique in a few minutes, but that wasn't the point.

She unlocked her front door and stepped into her modest hose. Before the door even swung shut, she sensed something wrong. She narrowed her eyes and flipped on the light before putting her keys on the counter noisily. "Hello?"

Of course, there was no answer. She shrugged off her strange feeling and dug around in her purse for her old communicator. She closed her fingers around it and took it out of her bag. She studied it contritely. She felt guilty for not listening to everything that Robin said before. Not like she could really blame herself. In the four years that she'd been gone, she had to have missed some of his calls. If they could be called that.

She kicked off her flip flops and stretched, suddenly feeling tired. She went up on her tiptoes and arched her back, stretching her arms above her head, lacing her fingers together and pressing them out, closely resembling a cat stretching out after a nap. She held the communicator in her thumb, being careful not to drop it.

She froze in that position, muscles tensing. She definitely heard something. She narrowed her eyes and allowed light to flood in them, dropping her stretching. "Hello?" she called again.

The light from her charged starbolts turned the hallway green and made the part that her light couldn't reach seem even darker. She was absolutely certain that someone was standing in that dark part of the hallway.

She made her voice low and intimidating. "I am giving you three seconds to come toward me with your hands above your head before I aim a starbolt at you," she growled in French.

There was no response. Maybe she was wrong. "_Trois… deux…_" she counted. She left a long pause and leaned forward before she finished. "_Un_." She balled her right hand into a fist and fired a weak starbolt ahead of her.

There _was_ someone there. She could see the outline of a man jumping out of the way. She didn't have to wonder about it for too long, because he flipped in front of her after dodging and grabbed her wrist tightly.

She backed away, wrenching her wrist out of his grasp. She was reluctant to throw another starbolt until she could determine exactly how strong her enemy was and how resilient he would be to her power. Plus, she didn't want to wreck the inside of her house. She squeezed the communicator in her hand and hurled it at the man, and he snatched it out of the air and held it in front of him.

"That's enough, Princess." Her eyes widened. That voice…

The lights immediately flicked off in her eyes and hands and her knees gave out from under her. A strong hand caught her by the small of her back as it held her wrist firmly in place. This was too familiar… She couldn't breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get herself under control. She sucked in a breath and stammered, "R-Robin…"

He smirked at her. "Actually, it's Nightwing now." She recognized the costume from her memories.

She shook her head. "Release me," she commanded weakly.

"But, Star-"

"Release me," she repeated.

Nightwing shrugged and dropped her wrist. She fell backward onto the floor and scrambled away from him. He raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She sat and pulled her knees up to her chest. There were a million things she wanted to say and she couldn't pick one thought out from the hundreds whizzing around her head. "You are here to ask me to come back?" she managed after a moment of floundering. That wasn't what she wanted to say. She wanted to yell at him for breaking into her house. What the hell?

He didn't answer right away. He clenched his jaw shut and sighed. "No. I'm not."

She raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "Then why are you here?"

He scratched the back of his neck, a gesture that was so familiar to her it made her a little weak. It was like he'd walked out of her memories into her life. "To see you."

She hovered in the air and landed on her feet. She meant to ask why he was in her house, not why he was in St. Martinique, but she was too shocked to correct him. "To see me?" she repeated.

"Yeah. In your… thing." He jerked his head vaguely in the direction of the studio.

"You were there?" she asked softly. Then, in a harsher, she added, "How did you find me?"

"It wasn't hard." He crossed his arms over his chest. "You should know me. I can dig up anything on anybody."

"I have been so careful…"

"Sorry, Star," he offered apologetically. "To escape from me, you'd have to swear off credit cards and internet. And, um, interacting with people who have internet."

She looked down at the ground. She didn't know if she should feel upset. How long had he known?

He cleared his throat and she looked back up at him. He was observing the communicator that she'd foolishly thrown at him. "Really? Someone breaks into your house and you throw a one pound piece of rounded metal at them?"

She blushed. "I suppose I am out of practice when it comes to combat."

"You kept this, huh?" He flipped the device in the air and caught it again.

"You already knew that I did."

He shook his head. "Nope. I didn't."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Slowly, like he was approaching a frightened animal, he walked over to her and kneeled in from of her so that they were eye level with each other. "I hoped that you did. I had to. Because the only other option was letting you go, and I wasn't about to do that."

She shrank back a little, putting her palms behind her and shifting her weight onto them. She looked at him, surprised and fighting back bubbly waves of joy, because she had too focus and when he said things like that it made it so hard to do anything except give herself to him. That hadn't changed in the four years she'd been gone. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You broke into my home."

"Yeah. Whoops. My bad. I thought it would take you longer than this to get home."

She frowned at him. "Why? Have you absconded with anything?"

A wide smile pulled at his mouth and she glared at him. "Uh. Sorry. I just love the way you talk. No, I didn't take anything."

"Then why?" she demanded.

He blew air out from cheeks. He was stalling. He reached up and scratched at the back of his neck. A blush crept onto his cheeks. It made her heart flutter to see him like that. She had to force herself to focus on the fact that he had broken into her house. Committed a crime against her. She could call the cops on him if she wanted. Not that it would do any good, because even if they apprehended him- which was unlikely, to say the least- he was a master escape artist. But still.

"Well?" she demanded, injecting extra force into the word. She raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.

"Because. I wanted to see if you still preferred your bedroom in pink. Or if you still hoarded those weird alien berries that gave Silkie mutant larva powers that one time. Or if you still put mustard on everything…"

She interrupted him, because as he continued it became harder and harder to remind herself that she was angry at him. "And you thought that the best way to do this was to break into my house?"

"Well…" He shrugged. "Yeah."

"'Yeah?'" she mimicked. "Truly?"

"Well, every time I try to talk to you, you run away," he pointed out. "So where are you gonna go next? Portugal? Romania? You can already speak Romanian, so why not, right?"

"Stop that," she murmured weakly.

"What about Prague? That's a city, not a country, but it's a beautiful place. Lots of people don't go there because of the language barrier, but that's not a problem for you. That must be really liberating, being able to go anywhere you want-"

"Stop it," she ordered more forcefully.

"-without having to worry about communication. Maybe you should try Paris, you could be in all the big Fashion Shows and you already speak French anyway-"

"Robin!" she shouted desperately. It was the wrong name, but she didn't care.

He stopped and lowered his gaze to look at the floor.

"You are doing the teasing of me."

He looked up at her. "What the hell do you want me to do, Starfire? Do you want me to beg you not to go anywhere else? Do you want me to pour my heart out so that you can reject me again? Do you want me to beg you to come back with me? Because damn it, if I thought it would make any difference, I would. But I know better than that."

She swallowed past a lump in her throat. "You said you did not come here to ask me to come back with you," she reminded him.

"I didn't. I've accepted now that you won't, but that doesn't mean I don't want you to."

There was a small silence between them. She couldn't say anything to that. So instead, she changed the subject. "I should call law enforcement on you."

He smiled and actually let out a quick, sharp laugh. "Go ahead." Then his smile faded. "Do you want me to leave? I will. If you want. You never have to see me again."

She didn't miss the phrasing. She never has to see him again. He didn't say 'I won't come here anymore' or 'I'll leave you alone'. Just that she wouldn't see him again. Somehow, she knew for certain that if she said yes, she never would. The thought made her stomach twist into a knot and sink slowly and the lump in her throat swell.

"Okay…" he muttered when she didn't answer. "I guess I'll take that as a no…"

She nodded at him. "You may stay. If you wish."

"Okay." He paused. "You know, I've replayed that day in my head hundreds of times."

"What day?" she asked, tilting her head. She'd replayed so many different days with the Titans in her head.

"You know. _The_ day. The one where I yelled at you." He looked at the floor, unable to hold her gaze.

"You did not yell at me. You called me naïve," she corrected softly.

He winced. "Yeah."

She closed her eyes as though they were shutters that would keep her emotions in. She wanted to talk to him about this and she didn't want to sound like she was accusing him of anything. "I was naïve then. I was not angry at you for saying it. I was angry that you tried to use that against me. I was angry that you were angry at me for it. Because I thought you understood. I suppose that I was not angry as much as I felt alone. I felt as though I suddenly realized the person I thought understood me the best didn't really understand me at all."

"I let you down." His head was hanging now and his tone made her want to hold him against her until his voice could turn happy again. She bit her lip.

"It was not your fault. I feel that I would have had to do all of this anyway." She wrapped her arms around her knees and thought about leaning forward so that he would have to look at her.

"Was it really that bad, being with us at the Tower?" He was still looking down.

"No. It was nice. And I missed it so terribly when I left. But that is why I had to break all contact with you. My friends." Her voice cracked and she cleared throat. "I am not sorry that I did it. I feel much more fulfilled now. I feel like I have a…" She paused, trying to think of the correct word. "A niche."

He raised his head to look at her. "Crime fighting wasn't enough?"

She held his gaze. "It is different. You had your family. Beast Boy had the Doom Patrol and his adoptive parents. Cyborg had a normal life before his accident. I was completely shut in. Being Starfire of the Teen Titans was my only identity," she explained.

He didn't answer. He looked contemplative and sad. Starfire looked down because she couldn't bear looking at him like that.

"Perhaps Raven understood so well because she, too, left her old life behind her and embraced her role as a Teen Titan as her only life." She wound a lock of hair around her finger. She looked through it at him. "You never apologized," she whispered.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yes, I did."

She shook her head, still winding her hair around her finger. "No. Never."

He furrowed his brow. "I must have."

"No. You tried several forms of persuasion to get me to come out of my room- bribery, the repeated use of the word 'please', I believe perhaps a few threats, reasoning- but you never said that you were sorry."

He groaned. "Would it have made a difference if I did?"

She shrugged. "I do not know. Not initially. But perhaps I would not have been so eager to leave Donna's apartment. I kept thinking about how you were not truly sorry and how going back would be a mistake."

"Is it too late to apologize now?" he asked softly.

She stopped messing with her hair and shook her head no.

He opened his mouth to say something but closed it quickly. He shuffled forward a little and put his hand over hers. "Starfire," he murmured, "I'm so, so sorry."

She felt pulled to him like a magnet. She scooted a tiny bit closer to him. "I forgive you."

He furrowed his eyebrows and raised his hand to stroke her cheek. "I was so angry. That day at Donna's. When I woke up and you weren't there."

She didn't know what to say. She was surprised that she'd done it. She hadn't exactly planned on leaving like that. She had woken up early and he was still sleeping and she had the urge to go and she just did it.

"I tried to follow you, that first day. I wanted to go after you. But Raven stopped me," he continued. She knew that. He'd mentioned it over the communicator a few times. She didn't answer him. He trailed his fingers down to brush his thumb over her bottom lip.

"Starfire," he called, his voice low.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to kiss you." She blinked up at him, confused. "I'm going to kiss you, and if you leave after I do it, I don't think I'm going to try to find you again."

"That is fair," she whispered.

He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. She wound her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer into a rougher kiss. He trailed his fingers down her shoulders and over her spine until they were resting at her hips. She opened her mouth against his and he groaned and pulled back. "Wait."

She nuzzled her cheek against his neck. "Yes?" she purred.

"Star," he said seriously, "come on. I'm trying to tell you something."

She pulled back sulkily. "Yes?" she asked again.

"I want you to know. That I really… I think I…" he squirmed uncomfortably and she raised an eyebrow at him. "Starfire, I love you, okay?"

Her eyes widened. "Robin… Nightwing…" she corrected, stammering.

"No, it's okay. Call me Robin. For tonight. We'll make up for lost time."

She shivered, and it certainly wasn't because of the temperature. "Robin," she said again, enjoying the sound of it as it left her lips. "I believe that I, too, am in love with you."

He kissed her forehead. "It's okay, Star. You don't have to say it just because I did."

She narrowed her eyes at him. She pressed her torso against his chest and positioned her mouth so that it was next to his ear and her breath would tickle his neck when she talked. "One thousand, three hundred and forty-five," she whispered.

He leaned his head forward so that his hair brushed her forehead. "What?" he asked groggily, fighting the effect her proximity had on him.

"That is the exact number of days that I have gone without seeing you." She pressed a kiss against his neck and let her teeth graze the skin there.

He groaned and pushed her back so that he could trap her lips under his. He eased her down to the floor on her back and she let him press kisses against her neck. He nuzzled his cheek against her hair. "Your hair still smells like raspberries," he observed, sounding surprised.

She shrugged. "I like it."

"Me too," he agreed. He bent to kiss her before stopping without touching her lips.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "What is the problem?" she asked, pulling at his shoulders.

"Nothing." He pressed a quick kiss against her lips to soothe her. "It's just that I was thinking about tomorrow."

She raised an eyebrow. "Tomorrow may be spent in much the same way as tonight, if you would just-"

He laughed and took her fingers in his so that she would stop pulling at him. "No complaints from me there. But, Monday, then."

"What about Monday?" she demanded.

"Well, I have to go back to Jump by then," he told her, sweeping her hair away from her eyes.

She smiled and put her arms around his neck. "I wish for you to take me with you."

He grinned at her and traced his fingers over her collarbone. "You do?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes. I miss Raven so very much. And Cyborg and Beast Boy. And Silkie. I nearly came back for him when I was staying with Donna, but she was not allowed pets at her apartment."

"And…?" Nightwing asked playfully.

"And I suppose that I may have missed you a little as well." She held her fingers a few inches apart to indicate.

She pulled him down for a kiss but he braced his palms against the floor and wouldn't budge. "And?" he asked again, nuzzling her nose with his.

"And I wish to live out the rest of my days at your side, never to be parted for fear of heart sickness?" she tried.

"Good answer," he approved, pressing her against the floor under him as he slipped his hand under the hem of her shirt and captured her lips with his.

**Yay all done! This was a long chapter. And I have even more to say, so stick around an extra couple minutes. **

**I broke Babs and Dick up. I know. I'm awful. They love each other. Shippers hate me… I think Babs is a perfectly fine character. I just… I don't ship Dick with anyone but Kori! Which is unfortunate for me, actually, because that man gets around.**

**I referenced Red Hood and the Outlaws. Oops. I didn't really mean too, it kind of just slipped into the narration. (Plugging the comic… Go read it! It starts off kind of… eh, in my opinion at least… but I love Red Hood and Arsenal and even some aspects of rebooted Starfire. But don't expect her to be like animated Star. Don't.) I kind of tried to blend all different kinds of universes, from original comicverse to New 52 reboot stuff to the future provided in the cartoon… which is also why I stationed Nightwing in Jump instead of Bludhaven. It's not an error. It's just a result of DC and their love of making things as convoluted as possible.**

**I think technically the island can be and is usually referred to as Martinique instead of St. Martinique, but I just picked up what Red Hood and the Outlaws was putting down. **

**Um. Guys. I have a confession to make. This nearly turned out to be a… a… a songfic. (thunder booms in the background) No but seriously. The song Run-Run-Run by Natasha Bedingfield. Really good. It goes, **_**Oh I can run/ Yes I can run run run/ But I can't escape/ No I can't escape your love **_**Which sounds a little creepy but the rest of the lyrics of that song are somehow bewitching and I always wanted to pay tribute to it somehow because it's the kind of song that can't come up on my iTunes without me wanting to play it twice. And, even though I have had this idea for a while, I was quite stumped about how to flesh it out… until another song happened. And that song… (Oh, I don't want to tell you guys, I'm going to be judged…) That song was… Nobody Compares by One Direction. I know! But it starts out **_**You're so pretty when you cry, when you cry/ Wasn't ready to hear you say goodbye/ Now you're tearin' me apat, tearin' me apart/ You're tearin' me apart. **_**And in the beginning stages I only had the Starfire parts planned out and that helped me have a kind of overarching idea for Robin. Ugh, judge me if you want. It doesn't make it less true.**

**Also, guys, this was supposed to be way angstier than it turned out to be. I originally had Robin move to Bludhaven instead of going back to Jump and didn't have him let Starfire come with him when she asked. Maybe that would have been a better ending, I don't know. It's what I planned for originally, and because I was so into, I never checked my outline and got caught up in just writing and completely forgot about that. So huh.**

**Last thing, I promise! I sometimes leave oneshots and stuff at loose ends. And I know this isn't a oneshot, but it was supposed to be. And it's the most open ended thing I've written in a long time. I could probably be persuaded to write a (real) oneshot as a conclusive partner to this one. I'm not sure what the rating would be… But if you guys want, I can see myself churning out a oneshot after this. I don't usually ask you guys directly about stuff like that, because I know that not everyone likes to review. But I don't want to make a companion piece for this if I'm going to be the only one who's going to read it. I have other things that I can work on. But the idea kind of intrigues me. Let me know what you guys think, and I'll see what will go down. If you review, I will let you know via PM if I'm going to make a companion for this piece, and I will probably update this super long author's note, too. So look out.**

**Okay. I really have to go now. Thanks for reading, you're all wonderful, even you non-reviewers. (You guys never get enough love.) Let me know what you guys think, and maybe possibly endure my self-plugging and check out my profile for more RobStar stuff. Catch you guys later. It's been real. Peace out. Shoo.**


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